Freelancer vs Agency: 7 Times Individuals Beat Agencies

Firstly, I’d like to stress that this isn’t a freelancer call out against agencies. I spent the first five years of my marketing career at agency level, received expert training, opportunity to progress and more importantly direction, all contributing to the position I’m in today.

As a freelance PPC professional, I still work alongside agencies. They are effective at what they do, but for new businesses dipping their toe into the world of marketing, or established businesses, they are not the be all and end all.

Here are 7 times individual PPC freelancers beat agencies…

1. Cost Effective

It should come down to quality, but often the overriding factor for any decision is cost.

Freelancers can offer lower fees, on a friendlier billing model, than our agency counterparts. It’s that simple.

Most freelancers work from home and have only a fraction of the overhead costs as a large agency. No office space cost, staff salaries, equipment, software and high utility bills. These savings are passed on to you, the client.

So, can you still get quality work at a lower cost?

2. Quality Work

Absolutely.

By choosing to work alongside a freelancer you’re getting equal quality work, arguably better, minus the excessive agency fees.

Our reputation is built on quality of work and the success and results we deliver for our clients.

You’re safe in the knowledge that your brief, strategy and management is handled by a qualified individual, not passed on to complete by a trainee.

3. We Do The Work Anyway

That agency PPC contract you just blew your marketing budget on, I’m doing the work for.

This can come as a bit of a shock to some clients, but agencies with limited in-house knowledge outsource to expert freelancers, for a lower cost than you just paid.

Why not just cut out the “middle man” and go straight to the source of the work?

4. Time

Have you ever found yourself as a low priority client? Bottom of the pile and your agency missing deadlines to service their higher profile clients and accounts?

Being the client of a freelancer gives you level priority, despite your budget. You’re in a small pool of clients that are serviced equally. Deadlines are met and transparency is maintained.

5. Communication

If you’ve worked with agencies in the past, you’ll know all about the account executive, account manager and account director structures they put in place to service you as a client.

Messy, right?

Waiting on information to filter through the roles, tick tock, errors, lack of transparency, to name a just a few annoyances.

Working with a freelancer gives you, the client, direct access to the source of the work. Experience, knowledge and instant information on the end of a phone call or email.

6. Flexibility

Freelancers operate on their own flexible time schedules. No Monday to Friday, 9 to 5.

For most of us, out of office times don’t exist. It’s not uncommon for freelancers to be working evenings and weekends, so when something important crops up, we’re here to respond.

This isn’t to say that all freelancers work around the clock. You might want to cover that topic prior to making any Sunday AM phone calls.

7. Personal Service

Expect a personal service, not corporate.

Our name represents our brand.